How to Turn Your Ideas into Remarkable Blog Posts

Blogging doesn’t come as easy for some people because it may involve quite a lot of details in the process. First, you have to come up with blog post ideas. I find the best way to generate a lot of them is by allocating some time to research and brainstorm. The next step is, you need to filter and make sure those ideas are unique and better blog ideas.

That is necessary if you want to create remarkable blog posts or contents. However, later I pointed out in the article that it isn’t necessary to come up with really good ideas to create solid content. There are ways to make contents remarkable without having really good ideas.

Let’s face it. If you enter some keywords into Google or any of your favorite search engines, most likely you will be able to find related articles and other content types related to those keywords. Nowadays, you can find information in almost every topic.

In competitive topics, a lot of them are really smashing contents so it is very unlikely that you’ll find something really unique. As they say, there is nothing new under the sun. Fortunately that’s not the key to remarkable blog posts.

Browsing Digg for quite some time, it is kind of obvious that a lot of those pages that made into the front page of Digg were not actually very unique. They were just good. A few of them were really good.

This blog post tries to bridge the gap in the idea generation and content production phase. Bottom line is, the quality of your blog post depends on your writing skills and amount of time you put into research and getting useful information for your audience.

To make the process methodologically simple, below are the step-by-step process to turn your ideas into remarkable blog posts:

1. Pick a blog idea and find how it fits

Assuming you already have a list of ideas you generated by following the previous process, you can now pick one idea and go with it. You see, if you make it as easy as possible, you are more likely to follow through.

Next, you also need to figure out how the blog idea fits into your blog. Although an idea may not be part of an article series, you should still fit it into your site theme. Remember that your readers are going to get updated content via RSS feed or email so make sure you deliver relevant content.

Just because it is your blog doesn’t mean you can do whatever you wish about it, especially if you want to attract traffic and build audience.

2. Make use of mini brainstorming session

Now it’s time to use your favorite tool — either note taking software, a physical notebook, or mindmapping software — to write down things you would like to include in the blog post.

Expand that one idea in numerous ways. If you really want to make it outstanding, you have to make the content well-thought out. The easiest way to do that is by pouring your thoughts up front so you know what to write before writing the first word for the blog post.

3. Create a blog post structure

If you use mindmapping software, the structure is already there. Otherwise, most likely your notes are scattered around. In this step, you need to think a way to organize those notes and create a structure out of them.

Really think about how you want to present the content to the readers. The sky is the limit when it comes to creating a good article, but making it as readable as possible within your writing skills is necessary to engage your readers to engage from the start to the end.

Oftentimes, beginning with a mini story helps a lot, so if you can tie in a story to the content, the idea can really turn into something not only worth reading but also entertaining.

4. Start writing

One of the great things about creating an outline before you start the writing process is that you may start anywhere. Think of the outline as subheads. Each of them can stand independently so it is like mini post of its own.

If you are stuck trying to find ways to start the article, you may just jump to any of the sub-section and start writing. This is also one of the most effective ways to avoid writer’s block.

As you start writing, you will find that it becomes easier to finish the whole passage, move to the next and complete the entire post.

5. Set it aside for a day

This step is simple, yet so important, that I think it deserves its own mention. Once you have the blog post ready, it is now time to set it aside for at least a day. The intention is to regain a fresh view of the topic when you come back again.

When you are too close to a topic and especially your writing, it is too easy to overlook something. This simple method ensures that you look at it as if you are a reader instead of the writer of the blog post.

6. Polish your blog post

You will often find more things to add or edit at least a few sentences when you come back a day later. Take some time to spell check, make sure everything sounds right and there is no grammatical mistakes.

If you come up with some points to add, you still have time to add them. It is critical that if you feel a post doesn’t live up to your standards of quality, you refrain publishing it immediately.

However, don’t be trapped in a circle of constant editing and “improving.” There is no such thing as a perfect blog post. While there is nothing wrong with making a blog post better (has more substance, more engaging, etc.) you should know when to stop and call it a finished product.

7. Publish and promote

Publishing content is the easiest part thanks to blogging software. However, most people stop at that. Just because you have it there doesn’t mean people will come.

Be proactive, promote your blog posts. If you have established relationships with fellow bloggers, let them know about your latest masterpiece. Use social media ethically to let others aware about your new piece of content.

Nowadays, promotion is as important as, if not more than content itself. Average content may thrive with proper promotion but nothing is more common than abandoned blogs with high quality blog posts. Most likely they abandoned the blogs because of the lack of traffic or audience.

8. Get feedback and analyze results

Blogging is a tremendous opportunity to get feedback from your audience, if that is part of your online strategy (you should, especially if you don’t plan another way to get feedback from them).

No matter how hard you try, it is the audience that gives you feedback about how well you do. Pay attention to comments to see how you can do things differently and increase results.

Also monitor the results you get from the post. Is it accepted by the social media crowd? How many people visit as the result of it? Who links back to your post and how many visitors do you get as referrals?

If you think your blog is like a distribution channel for your product (content), you should use the feedback to make the product better the next time. That’s how you can improve and grow your traffic. Gradual improvement may not seem to be significant, but if you aim for the long haul, it really separates winners from the average.

Return to Blog Content — How to Write Great Content and Where to Get Them.